A Rant About Incompetent Electricians!

[Piratepete]

I've taken the stand that I will not pass off anybody elses work and I actively tell Joe Public to use only Part P registered guys. This is not a guarantee of a good job but it helps. At least his test gear is likely to be calibrated, he'll be insured and he'll be up to date with the 17th Ed., he'll test and issue certificates and even maybe know how to do the work.
Case in point.
Got asked to a 25year old house to redo a loft light. Found no switch (connected to study light below) and done in flex.
Was then invited to the recently refurbished kitchen and utility room (converted from attached garage).
There was no accessible isolation for any of the white goods. The double oven was connected to the ring cct. The ring cct neutral was open circuit. The wall mounted TV was directly connected to the ring cct as was the kitchen extractor (the flex just disappeared into the wall!). The new lighting in the utility room is connected to the ring cct but not via a fused spur. Even the under cupboard lights were directly on the ring.

The guy who did this lot, a relative, has been practicing in south Brum for the last 2 years, Gawd help us!
Apparently he even found somebody to pass his work off!!!!

Resigned sigh! Pete

 

[Specialist]

I've taken the stand that I will not pass off anybody elses work and I actively tell Joe Public to use only Part P registered guys. This is not a guarantee of a good job but it helps. At least his test gear is likely to be calibrated, he'll be insured and he'll be up to date with the 17th Ed., he'll test and issue certificates and even maybe know how to do the work.
Case in point.
Got asked to a 25year old house to redo a loft light. Found no switch (connected to study light below) and done in flex.
Was then invited to the recently refurbished kitchen and utility room (converted from attached garage).
There was no accessible isolation for any of the white goods. The double oven was connected to the ring cct. The ring cct neutral was open circuit. The wall mounted TV was directly connected to the ring cct as was the kitchen extractor (the flex just disappeared into the wall!). The new lighting in the utility room is connected to the ring cct but not via a fused spur. Even the under cupboard lights were directly on the ring.

The guy who did this lot, a relative, has been practicing in south Brum for the last 2 years, Gawd help us!
Apparently he even found somebody to pass his work off!!!!

Resigned sigh! Pete

Never ceases to amaze me how they can get it so wrong, when it's so easy to get right. It's idiots like this though that keep getting the work & the rest of us have to keep clearing up their mess, none of their customers would probably dream of reporting them. Cos he's a good old boy & he was only doing it for some beer money etc ( how many times have i heard that 1) but should we ever make a mistake then god help us, they'll throw everything they can at us.:furious3:

 

[Mr.Si]

........... suggesting maybe that Part Pee isn't working ?

"Part WHAT mate...? Never heard of that one... Are you saying that so that you can charge me more money?"

 

[topquark]

........... suggesting maybe that Part Pee isn't working ?

Oh, it's working. It's generating the companies running it lots of revenue and tax for the government. Oh, is that not what it was supposed to do?

 

[Specialist]

To be honest i think thats exactly what it was intended to do. Bring in revenue for the Government, Local Authorities & the Scam. Oops sorry I meant to say scheme providers, don't think it actually had anything to do with making Domestic wiring safer. All they did was wrap it up as a building Reg to quell the outcry if Joe public actually realised it was a scam.

 

[mechelec]

When you introduce a scheme where someone who has completed an overpriced 5 day course, can then complete 2 jobs and be accepted by a part p scheme provider you will get a large amount of poor work appearing. I know only a few members of the public recognice part P but those that do will generally have more trust in that electrician. As far as I can see Part P is a way for the chancers and cowboys to jump into a profesional trade with no experience. I know there are a lot of you guys who have years of experience and have to pay a small fortune to join a scheme must be gutted to see the standard of people coming into the trade. Stick to industrial, no 5 day course will ever help you make it there.

 

[Specialist]

I've never been that fussed on Domestic to be honest, hate having to lug punters furniture about & some of the things you see / find can take a lot of Stomaching. Commercial / Industrial great.

 

[Piratepete]

Hi Guys
I guess this could run and run. IMHO Part P is a good thing, flawed though it may be. Electrical wiring should've been covered by building regs years ago.
When it came in I heard oldtimers complaining about having to buy test equipment!!! So a lot more testing is, I guess, being done now.
A lot of prospective customers do now ask if I'm Part P or NICEIC registered (They've never heard of all the other organisations!). Conveyancing solicitors now send out very detailed questionaires asking what's been done and please provide the test certificates. A lot of DIYers don't do their own wiring now. So I think, over time, that house wiring will improve.
Notifiable work is now insurance backed.
I do think that the annual check is a waste of my time and money - NICEIC was trying to get this reduced but I understand couldn't get agreement from the others.
But - signing off other monkey's work has to stop!

Cheers
Pete

 

[trev]

To be fair Pete, no spark I know that's worth his salt will sign off any work not done either by himself or under his very close supervision

 

[Piratepete]

To be fair Pete, no spark I know that's worth his salt will sign off any work not done either by himself or under his very close supervision

Hi Trev
Interesting you say that. I recently got an email from a guy asking me for a price to sign off his work because his usual electrician was unavailable. He'd just done an extension - all circuits were already covered and energised!! I told him what I thought and politely declined
Cheers
Pete

 

[KFH]

I am in two minds about the incompetent electricians:

1 - They produce work for the competent who fix their mistakes
2 - They initially take away work from the competent
3 - They may kill some innocent person. Why is that when Darwinism should apply it is usually someone else that gets hurt?

Do you have to be able to count to be competent?

 

[GLENNSPARK]

I've never been that fussed on Domestic to be honest, hate having to lug punters furniture about & some of the things you see / find can take a lot of Stomaching. Commercial / Industrial great.

oh i dont know special......seen some stuff in some houses thats cheered me right up..... **** stashes spring to mind here....lol.....

 

[Specialist]

oh i dont know special......seen some stuff in some houses thats cheered me right up..... **** stashes spring to mind here....lol.....

Know what you mean:tounge_smile: but i've seen more houses that turned my stomache:ack2:

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Know what you mean:tounge_smile: but i've seen more houses that turned my stomache:ack2:

we go in quite a few spesh.....i just turn a blind eye to how the disfunctional live these days.....its just a " in out...in out....shake your clothes out"....lol.....

 

[Specialist]

Know what you mean Glenn, we used to do a lot of local authority work & to be fair a lot of them were'nt as bad as the private houses lol. Seen my old apprentice run out of 1 or 2 but that's not for an open forum:blush5:

 

[trev]

Hi Trev
Interesting you say that. I recently got an email from a guy asking me for a price to sign off his work because his usual electrician was unavailable. He'd just done an extension - all circuits were already covered and energised!! I told him what I thought and politely declined
Cheers
Pete

I completely agree mate but I did say no spark worth his salt would do it. There are always a few who don't give a damn in every walk of life the bad thing is those who don't give a damn in our trade risk injuring or killing people